Post #544528 by Ekomomai on Mon, Jul 26, 2010 10:06 AM

Tuna poke, coconut shrimp, fried plantains with savory coconut sauce and ginger-lime chicken with a pineapple rum sauce.

The tuna poke is basically Ceviche; marinated in lime and seasoned rice wine vinegar with ginger and green onions. It was a bit strong on the lime; I wasn't confident in the ability of the small amount of lime juice called for in the recipe to actually "cook" the fish, so I added three times as much. I can say with confidence that the 2 tbs of lime juice is enough; too much lime juice and it's a pucker-fest. But good. THis is meant to be served as an appetizer, along with fried wonton chips or some other substrate.

The fried plantains were simple; cut green plantains into 1/2 thick rounds, season and fry, serve with the sauce. The sauce is basically a white sauce made with coconut milk, adding green onions and a little vanilla. This is always a tasty combination.

Coconut shrimp was made from a recipe provided by Alton Brown: dredge peeled, deveined shrimp in corn starch, dip in egg wash, coat in coconut, deep fry for 3 minutes or so. I forgot to season them though: salt, pepper, cayenne. It needs it.

The ginger-lime chicken was simple: marinate chicken chunks in seasoned rice wine vinegar and salt for an hour, sear them in a tbsp of canola oil. Stir in green onion and ginger, let cook on low for fifteen minutes or so. I made a pineapple rum sauce earlier using pineapple juice, apricot nectar, lime juice, passion fruit syrup (Aunty Lilikoi), brown sugar and Coruba rum. This gets reduced down until it becomes a thick syrup (it takes a while). I was in a rush to get the picture and sit down and eat so the rum sauce didn't actually make it to the photo here.